Southern Specialties uses Blue Book for Fraud Detection and Prevention

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Debbie Gillis, Vice President of Risk at Southern Specialties, Inc., a grower-shipper based in Pompano Beach, Florida, has been a credit risk specialist in the produce industry for many years, leading Southern’s credit risk department since 2000. Debbie recalls and explains receiving a new customer inquiry about a potential $90,000 order from the sales department one day that felt odd and decided to research with Blue Book Services. 

Debbie first looked up the company and found it to be a legitimate operator, with a good rating and solid track record, but the inquirer’s name was not found as a company contact. Debbie could have contacted the company but decided to call her trusted Blue Book representative for assistance. After Debbie shared the email, the Blue Book rep immediately noticed that the email domain from the inquiring company did not match the company’s official domain. And after further review, I noticed that industry credit references had different domain names. Another red flag! The Blue Book representative contacted the buyer company and confirmed that they did not employ the person making the inquiry, nor had they ever heard of the person, revealing the attempt as a fraudulent effort to acquire products from Southern Specialties, confirming Debbie’s hunch. 

Debbie’s instinct to consult Blue Book for a second opinion proved invaluable. She explains, “Blue Book’s information is essential for mitigating risks in our daily operations and has unfortunately become a crucial resource for validating both legitimate and fraudulent credit requests. If it were not for the representative identifying the fake email domain and pointing out the bogus reference, I might have mistakenly granted credit for a fraudulent inquiry. The experienced team at Blue Book is indispensable in our decision-making process.”

With fraudulent inquiries on the rise, Debbie strongly advises all produce companies to validate both new and existing business inquiries through Blue Book Services.